Analysis: Money might be key factor in Manchester mayoral race

Two pieces of paper circulated Tuesday might tell the story about Manchester's election for mayor better than anything else.

On one piece of paper are totals from incumbent Mayor Ted Gatsas' campaign finance report, which he just filed. It showed he raised over $152,000 in the last three months. The other piece of paper came from Gatsas' opponent, Patrick Arnold, an alderman who told friends he has raised $3,275 so far in July and has a goal reaching $7,500 by the end of the month. His campaign says they have raised around $30,000 for the year.

While campaign money is essential for any candidate in terms of getting out a massage about three and a half months before election day, the amount of money raised could be an indicator for the kind of support each candidate is getting.

After all, if a person gives money to a candidate they are likely to vote for that candidate if they live in the city.

Since he entered the race in January, Arnold has succeeded in preventing other candidates from getting into the race -- and had his first child -- but has not been able to galvanize the electorate to care about the race, much less his own candidacy.

For now, the problem for Arnold isn't even the money gap between him and Gatsas, it is just to have enough money to run the type of campaign he wants to run. Without it, this will be a race forgotten about before it even begins.

Hillary Clinton's office said "nothing nefarious was at play" when the former secretary of state used her personal email address, rather than one provided by the State Department, during her four years as America's top diplomat.